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Guilty verdict in killing of NYPD Detective Randolph Holder

NEW YORK — A guilty verdict was handed down Monday against the man who shot and killed NYPD Detective Randolph Holder, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Tyrone Howard was convicted on all counts in the death of Holder, who was gunned down in the line of duty on Oct. 20, 2015. Holder was 33.

What would become a deadly encounter began about 8:30 p.m. as Holder and his partner, both in plainclothes, responded to reports of shots fired near East 102nd Street and First Avenue in East Harlem, NYPD said.

When they arrived, a man told him his bike was stolen at gunpoint by one of the individuals who witnesses spotted running along the footpath heading north on the FDR Drive, police said. Holder and his partner encountered a man on a bicycle on that footpath near East 120th Street and that’s when shots rang out, Commissioner William Bratton said.

NYPD Detective Randolph Holder

Deputy Chief William Aubry, the commander of Manhattan detectives, said the suspect dropped the bike and pulled out a gun, firing one shot that struck Holder in the forehead. The officer died hours later at a hospital.

Howard was arrested the next day. Mayor Bill de Blasio at the time described Howard as a “hardened criminal” who “should not have been on the streets.”

He’d been wanted for nearly two months in connection with a gang-related shooting, and came back onto law enforcement’s radar after shooting one of their own.

Tyrone Howard, seen here in a New York state booking photo, opened fire the night of Oct. 20, 2015, killing NYPD Officer Randolph Holder, posthumously promoted to detective, on a footpath along the FDR Drive. (Photo: New York State Department of Corrections)

Posthumously promoted to detective, Holder emigrated from Guyana and soon after became a third-generation officer following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Holder joined the NYPD in July 2010 and worked in Police Service Area 5, where he patrolled the public housing projects of East Harlem.